On the corner of what used to be one of Gastown’s busiest intersections, Jackie Haliburton’s clothing store is wearing the aftermath of the property crime and vandalism that escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Four of Angel Vancouver’s five windows at 2 Powell Street are currently boarded up and awaiting replacement glass after break-ins – while the fifth is partially shattered due to a recent break-in attempt.
It’s the only window Haliburton has left to display her Desigual brand and she’s keeping it free of plywood so the public doesn’t think her business is closed.
“I’m really fed up,” the owner of Angel Vancouver told Global News.
Haliburton said in her first 21 years in business, her windows were only broken three times.
“Since COVID started, there’s been eleven and seven of them have been in the last two and a half months.”
Haliburton has glass insurance but pays a $500 deductible on each smashed window, and said it costs approximately $1,000 every time broken glass needs to be boarded up.
“I can’t afford to come to the store every day and have a $1,700 window broken,” she said.
Including the addition of new locks, a security system and gates, Haliburton estimates damage from the most recent smashing spree will set her back $15,000.
“It’s like really hard to go to sleep at night and think that in the morning you might have another break-in,” Haliburton said.
Last month, Vancouver’s top cop told the Police Board that glass breaks were up 40 per cent since 2019.
In the downtown core, Vancouver police say commercial break and enters with broken glass have increased 24 per cent from 92 reports in 2019 to 114 in 2021.
“Shopkeepers are replacing glass at a very high rate,” Chief Const. Adam Palmer said on Feb. 24.
“Sometimes they’re getting the windows replaced only to have them broken again.”
Business owners like Haliburton say a heightened police presence is needed.
“When people know they can get away with things, with lawlessness, they’re going to do it,” said Haliburton.
Vancouver police acknowledge that Gastown faces a number of public safety challenges, many stemming from the close proximity to East Hastings Street and the Downtown Eastside.
The VPD said it has dedicated teams of officers working in the Downtown Eastside who also walk the beat in Gastown and Chinatown, with extra officers deployed on weekends and around social assistance cheque times.
Unfortunately, it’s a densely populated and high-crime area said Sgt. Steve Addison, and when serious incidents happen they tend to “sap up all available police resources”, sometimes limiting their ability to maintain a visible presence to deter crime.
With COVID restrictions being lifted and cruise ships set to return, Addison said police “will continue working with businesses and residents to address public safety concerns and to apprehend offenders.”
With fewer tourists on the street, Haliburton said many areas of Gastown are also extremely dark at night.
“If you have it lit up well, you’re going to get less crime,” she told Global News.
The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association has also suggested better lighting would go a long way towards making people feel safer in the city.
“We light the road but we talk about wanting to decrease car travel and increase walkability and bike-ability,” president and CEO Nolan Marshall III told a public safety forum on March 3.
“But we don’t light the sidewalks and the storefronts sufficiently.”
As a result of repeated break-ins, Haliburton’s business is one of several in Gastown with boarded-up windows.
“If you were in any other city in the world and you had a historical area that looked like this – it just doesn’t happen. This should be the jewel of Vancouver,” said Haliburton.